Outrigger fishing line system with line release

ABSTRACT

The device comprises a bifurcated body, with two legs bendable toward or from one another, a plastic sheave arranged for rotation on an axis in the slot between the two legs, and means for adjustably clamping the two legs together for adjustment of holding effort exerted on the sheave to stay in its normal place of rotation between the two legs. When a jerk of predetermined strength is exerted on the line by a striking fish, the guide pulley is jerked from between the holding legs, and drops in the water. The line is thus freed, and thereafter extends directly rearward from the tip of the fishing pole.

United States Patent 1191 Naone et a1. 5

' [4 1 Sept. 16, 1975 OUTRIGGER FISHING LINE SYSTEM WITH LINE RELEASE[22] Filed: June 17, 1974 21 Appl. No.: 479,628

52 us. c1 43/4112; 24/201 TR 1/1974 Watanabe.. 43 4312 6/1974 Bissonette43/43. 1 2

Primary Examiner warner 11. Camp Attorney, Agent, or FirmForrest J.Lilly ABS I'RACT The device comprises a bifurcated body, with two legsbendable toward or from one another, a plastic sheave arranged forrotation on an axis in the slot between the two legs, and means foradjustably clamping the two legs together for adjustment of holdingeffort exerted on the sheave to stay in its normal place of rotationbetween the two legs. When a jerk of predetermined strength is exertedon the line by a striking fish, the guide pulley is jerked from betweenthe holding legs, and drops in the water. The line is thus freed, andthereafter extends directly rearward from the tip of the fishing pole.

5 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures I OU'IRIGGER FISHING LINE SYSTEM WITH LINERELEASE v Q BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION; 1

Field of the'lnvention' I This invention pertains to outrigger fishingline systems now in use in trolling for certain classes of fish fromfishing boats, and particularly to the line guide or clip located on theoutrigger whichnorma lly guides the line from the end of the fishingpoleand then allows it to travel from that point spaced well outwardlyrelative to the wash of the boat or to an adjacent flat line, forexample. 7 j

It is common to construct such a clip or guide so that it will releasethe line owing to the jerk in the line when the bait is struck by afish-Some of these have been adjustable. It is important that thisrelease take place surely when a jerk of the right magnitude for thetype of fish occurs. For some fish, or fishing conditions, the line isto be released when the jerk is relatively -light; and in others, it maybe necessary that the release operate only when a more powerful jerkisexperienced at the guide. My guide accordingly has been contrived for'adjustability, torelease surely and positively upon a jerk of amagnitude desired or selected, and to positively prevent release until ajerk of at least the predetermined magnitude is exerted. Afurther-purpose of the invention is to provide aguide that is improvedas regards mechanical simplicity, is inexpensive, and is capable ofadjustment easily and surely to release positively with the anticipatedjerk.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a splitor bifurcated body, characterized by two integral legs separated by aslot which receives a line sheave, for rotation therebetween, andprovided with means for adjustably forcing the legs gradually toward oneanother to progressively pinch the sheave between the legs to exert adesired clamping force on the sheave. The fishing line passes from thetip of the pole over this sheave, and thence to a trailing, or trolling,position. The body of this device is mounted on the outrigger in acommon fashion. When a fish strikes the bait, and the line jerk issufficient, the sheave yanks free of its supporting body, and is simplylost in the water, while the line is released, and its temporary slackis picked up by the pole. If the jerk is insufficient for theadjustment, the sheave will simply turn, but will not release thepulley.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic plan view ofa rearward portion of a fishing boat showing the outrigger fishingsystem and the release device of the present invention incorporatedtherein;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the release device of theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a section taken on line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a transverse section taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 shows a portion of the device with its bifurcations spread toenable introduction of the sheave therebetween; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the sheave of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIGil, numeral-10 designates,more or less diagrammatically, .a-fragmentaryplan yiew of the right handrearward portion, of a fishing boat, the cockpit beingindicated atI 1. II At 12 is the.usual outrigger, furnished at its outer end with a sheave13. A second sheave 14 can be mounted on the side of, the cockpit, ashere shown, or the base of thepole. An endless halyard 15 passesover'these sheaves, and through grommets on the outrigger, as s n.) Th erelease device of ,the invention is designated at and is connected by aconventional swivel snap at 21 to a point on the halyard. I j

I The fishing pole 22 is conventionally. mounted on the side of, orvyithin, the cockpit 1 hand has a reel 23, and fishing line 24, whichisloutreached by the outrigger, in the usualway.

.The release device may be eornposed of a suitable plastics material,such as an acrylic, sold under the trademark PLEXIGLA S. It is in theform of a cylinder 30, flattened into an apertured flat tang 31 at oneend and bifurcated or split by a flat and normallyparallel sided longitudinalslot 32 extending into it from the other. The two legs 34 soformed are capable of resilient or elastic flexure to spread themslightly apart, or draw them together from strict parallelism For thelatter purpose an adjustment screw 36 extends through a smooth bore 40in one leg at about the center ofthe body, and into an aligned threadedb0re.4,1 in the other leg. As here shown, the screw has anAllenhead 46on one end, with a steel washer 47 beneath it, bearing on a soft rubber(neoprene, for example) washer 48 placed between the Allen screw headand the corresponding leg 34. The other end of the screw threads intothe threaded bore in the other leg, and it will be seen that as thescrew is turned right-handedly, said other leg is drawn to the first,and the slot between the two legs is reduced in width by the resultingelastic bending of the two legs toward one another.

A grooved sheave 50 for the fishing line is mounted between theextremities of the legs 34, in the position shown. The axis of rotationof the sheave is determined by two aligned bores 52 in the legs. Thesides of the sheave have convex axial protuberances 54, preferably inthe form of spherical, ball segments. Preferably, and in my preferredembodiment, the ball has a radius a trifle greater than that of thebore, and thus seats near its periphery on the adjacent edge of thebore. Thus, for a bore diameter 0.272 inch, the ball segment may have adiameter of 0.312 inch. The sheave may have a thickness of 0.250 inch,and the slot between the legs may be substantially the same.

To install the sheave, the clamp screw is loosened, and the sheave theninserted into the slot, and pressed toward the bores 52. The ballsegments cam the legs apart, the legs flexing as seen in FIG. 5. Theball segments snap into the bores when sufficiently aligned therewith,and then occupy the position of FIG. 3.

The mounting of the sheave on the bore edges, with at least a lightpressural engagement, results in a sheave which turns easily, but withsufficient friction that it is not free running. The friction can thenbe progressively increased by tightening the adjustment screw. With noadded tightening, the ball segments on the sheave, engaged in the endsof the mounting bores, furnish a substantial degree of restraint againstbeing jerked out of the device by the striking of a fish. This restraintcan be progressively increased to any degree desired by tight ening theclamping screw.

When the sheave is yanked free, the line is released from the outriggerguide, and the slack is shortly taken up by the motion of the boat, sothe line will then move to trail from the end of the pole, as indicatedby the dash line in FIG. 1.

The line guide and release device of the invention is connected to theaforementioned swivel by a wire 58 passing through the aperture 59 inits tang 31. With the line guide and release device hauled in, thefishing line is strung from the end of the fishing pole over its sheave,the leader and bait attached, and the device then hauled back out.

Those skilled in the art will understand the use of the device fullyfrom their own experience and foregoing description. The device issimple, approaching the problem in a novel and improved fashion. Thesheave operates smoothly and predictably, being released in accurateresponse to the setting of the clamp screw. The plastic sheave is veryinexpensive, and the cost of using a new sheave after each is lost inuse is negligible.

I claim:

1. A fishing line guide releasable by a jerk on the line ofpredetermined magnitude, comprising:

a body having a slot therein,

a fishing line sheave rotatable on said body in said slot,

means mounting the sheave for rotation in the slot for release of thesheave from the slot in response to a jerk in a fishing line loopedabout said sheave.

2. The subject matter of claim 1, wherein said body is made of aresilient material and said body comprises two legs on opposite sides ofsaid slot which are elastically bendable apart or together underseparating or closing stress, respectively,

the means mounting the sheave in the slot comprising on each side of thesheave, and at the adjacent side of said leg, and centered on the axisof rotation, a protuberance and a socket paired therewith.

3. The subject matter of claim 2 including also a clamp screw adjustablyconnecting said legs and adapted to draw said legs toward one anotherand against the sides of the sheave to apply a predetermined clampingforce on said sheave.

4. The subject matter of claim 1, wherein said body is made of aresilient material and said body comprises two legs on opposite sides ofsaid slot which are elastically bendable apart or together underseparating or closing stress, respectively,

the means mounting the sheave in the slot comprising transverse socketsin said legs on the axis of the sheave, and axial protuberances on saidsheave receivable in said sockets, and

an adjustable clamp screw passing freely through one of said legs andscrew-threaded into a screwthread bore in the other of said legs.

5. The subject matter of claim 4, wherein said sockets in said legscomprise aligned bores therethrough, and said protuberances compriseconvex heads engageable in the inner ends of said bores.

1. A fishing line guide releasable by a jerk on the line ofpredetermined magnitude, comprising: a body having a slot therein, afishing line sheave rotatable on said body in said slot, means mountingthe sheave for rotation in the slot for release of the sheave from theslot in response to a jerk in a fishing line looped about said sheave.2. The subject matter of claim 1, wherein said body is made of aresilient material and said body comprises two legs on opposite sides ofsaid slot which are elastically bendable apart or together underseparating or closing stress, respectively, the means mounting thesheave in the slot comprising on each side of the sheave, and at theadjacent side of said leg, and centered on the axis of rotation, aprotuberance and a socket paired therewith.
 3. The subject matter ofclaim 2 including also a clamp screw adjustably connecting said legs andadapted to draw said legs toward one another and against the sides ofthe sheave to apply a predetermined clamping force on said sheave. 4.The subject matter of claim 1, wherein said body is made of a resilientmaterial and said body comprises two legs on opposite sides of said slotwhich are elastically bendable apart or together under separating orclosing stress, respectively, the means mounting the sheave in the slotcomprising transverse sockets in said legs on the axis of the sheave,and axial protuberances on said sheave receivable in said sockets, andan adjustable clamp screw passing freely through one of said legs andscrew-threaded into a screwthread bore in the other of said legs.
 5. Thesubject matter of claim 4, wherein said sockets in said legs comprisealigned bores therethrough, and said protuberances comprise convex headsengageable in the inner ends of said bores.